Unknown (to me, or known to me at some point, but now forgotten) airplanes, I find fascinating. Here is an example, I ran into today, at the top of the freeware upload list. In the Top 50, today, at FlightSim.com, I counted, 20+ files/liveries, devoted to this historical plane. I would call that an impressive statistic, in a single day for a (tiny little) historical monoplane, and, in fact, I don't easily recall such (daily) enthusiast response, to a freeware file, in my recent memory...)...so, the plane must have been special...and, indeed, it was...!

The Latecoere 28.1, shown below, in the screenshots, was assembled in the year 1930 by the Latecoere Company, which was founded in 1917, via a series of factories, in Toulouse, France. Right away, I must mention, the company not only exists today, but is also a prominent supplier of aeronautical components and systems to major commercial airlines. For example, Latecoere is now the leading independent manufacturer of aircraft doors, and supplies such equipment to both Airbus and Boeing,...good to know, because, obviously, these doors require extremely high standards of safety and performance, btw, comes to my mind, at 40,000 feet cruise, in a long-haul airliner, into a late (quiet) night, standing right next to such an exit door, always bit of an uneasy feeling, to be looking at that door, while waiting for your turn to use the facilities... 🙂...

Now, back to this plane: Latecoere 28.1 N930 "Smara", in May 1929, entered the (Toulouse - Casablanca) route (see first MAP below). It also began flying on the Paris-Madrid route in August of the same year, flight lasting 10 hours with stops in Barcelona, Alicante, Malaga and Tangiers. It was then deployed to serve other Aeropostale (airmail) lines. I recall such details in the (English translated) accounts of French writer/aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, who was himself an Aéropostale pilot. In 1930, an attempt was made to establish, with the help of Latecoere, a transatlantic line from West Africa to South America. On May 12 and 13, 1930, a flight between Saint-Louis (Senegal), [ICAO=GOSS], and Natal (Brazil), [ICAO=SBNT], took place. The flight crossed the oceanic distance of ~1700 nm in the narrowest part of the Atlantic - from bulge to bulge, so to speak,..between the two continents (see 2nd MAP below). Thus, the (first) 200 kg of mail from France was delivered to the New World, in a Latecoere.

The modern Air France has a (birth) connection to Latecoere and Aeropostale. The airline was named Air France, in August 1933, following the takeover of the assets of the Aéropostale. Air France was officially inaugurated at the Paris-Le Bourget Airport on 7 October 1933. It then moved to Paris, while identifying itself with the Air Orient winged seahorse logo (you can spot this classic logo in a few of the Latecoere plane images below). Air France is special to me, at least, for one (personal) reason. I've traveled (as pax) in Air France, only once, but that trip remains (and will always remain) fresh in mind. That was my only first-class travel (of course, thanks to the accumulated points, which are long evaporated now,...🙂...) in an extra-long-haul flight. Been typically only a (seasoned) "Sardine Class"...🙂...traveler, it was incredible to note the extreme level of attention bestowed on the first class travelers...

Only 16 examples of the single-engine (Latecoere) transport plane were built for Aeropostale which used them on the Toulouse-Casablanca route (per shown MAP). The plane was a high-wing monoplane of wooden and metal wing, metal fuselage, and canvas on the back. The Latecoere 28 model went on to serve as a successful French long-haul mail plane and passenger airliner of the 1930s, and, most significantly, as stated above, it was also the main-stay of Air France's predecessor, Aeropostale, contributing, and eventually leading up to the birth of the modern Air France, as we know today.

Please find, below, a few symbolic (and evocative) images of Latecoere (Late 28.1.3 N930 Smara model), lifting off from Toulouse airport (EFBO) bound for Casablanca (GMMN).

Hope you enjoy this account and these few images below, of this classic monoplane...!

Thanks for your interest and comments...!!

Superb shots! 😉

Appreciated the comment....thanks...!!

Quite an interesting aircraft and  - at least for me - a rather unknown chapter of aviation history as well. Thanks a lot for that! 

Btw, the idea of crossing the pond in one of these, specially at night in complete darkness, makes me shudder. Not even simulatorwise, as I wouldn´t like to spend that much time in front of my computer,

On 3/23/2021 at 4:44 AM, duesenwerni said:

Btw, the idea of crossing the pond in one of these, specially at night in complete darkness, ....

Thanks for the comments, duesenwerni...!!

Yes, first of all, it revived a bit of an unknown (but seemingly quite significant) chapter of history, for me, too, here, and, of course, there are no shortage of such, in aviation history......

Interestingly, when it caught my attention, just last week, and I acquired this A/C, from a fresh upload to the Freeware Library, and installed into my FSX, quite unexpectedly, I received a pop-up reminding me there are already Aircraft with same Titles in my Airplanes directory...sure enough, I'd an earlier version of this "Latécoère" already installed...probably since long long ago, and had forgotten...of course, without the new repaints, from last week...

Goes to show, with time, our interests may drift and waver (and leave things behind), but history remains the same...🙂...

And, agree, the (haunting) loneliness and other elements, involved, on the part of these aviators, when such flights actually occurred, is impossible to grasp in our modern times...(here is someone, btw, who has been (lately) playing with the (modern) GTN 750 Touchscreen Garmin,...🙂..., and claiming a high degree of situational awareness)...but, your comment brought me back to the reality that must have faced the pilots of those old times....without the aid of any such navigational devices....

Just to capture (maybe) a millionth of the feel, I post below 2 shots, of this Latecoere 28.1, transposed to the middle of the (South) Atlantic Ocean (thanks to the magic of FSX), in the middle of the night (please see Top Down View of Globe, where the A/C is identified by the red crosswire, in the middle of nowhere...)...In the first shot, I looked hard for the Moon, but couldn't find it, (apparently) obscured by the Clouds, but, in the second shot, I, fortunately, did catch the glaring Sun, but, from the other side of the Earth...🙂...

 

[Edit]

Folks: Noticed that the night images were too dark to see anything at all...so, here, instead, are two, just at daybreak, same location of mid-Atlantic...

Edited March 28, 20215 yr by P_7878